


Pride

by OrtegaTrash (Malicei)



Series: Fallen Hero Fics [2]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Being proud of who you are, Flashback, Fluff, Gen, Interrogation scene, Mafia Family, Taking out your issues on others, Trust Issues, anger issues, mob boss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 13:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18209135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malicei/pseuds/OrtegaTrash
Summary: Pride, an up-and-coming mob boss interrogates Herald and ends up confronting his own demons. His minions are at the ready with blankets and chicken soup.





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> Name: Léon Bellandini | Puppet: Simba | Villain name: Pride
> 
> Daring/arrogant/fighter/lots of contacts/gang leader.

_“You know I’m going to ruin you, right?”_  you purr as you circle the chair Herald’’s tied to. “Mr oh-so-perfect poster boy hero.”

Herald shivers, his muscles tight and tense. Too afraid to move. Too afraid to show weakness in front of you. “I’m not afraid of you,” he lies, and you tut at him. It’s pointless to lie to a telepath and really, he should know that. “W-what do you even want with me?”

Little Danny boy is terrified, and you’re the reason why.

It makes you smile, taking a vicious sort of pleasure in his predicament. You can’t help but feel a thrill shoot through you at having brought Herald down to your level. On his knees, bound in front of you.

There’s a…different sort of thrill that also shoots through you at having Herald in such a vulnerable position kneeling, but you ignore it. As tempting as it might be…no. You’re not _that_ sort of villain.

Sure, you could force others to submit to your control easily. But there’s just no meaning in it. No satisfaction. Not like turning them to your side and luxuriating in their conflicting emotions, their moral struggles. You want genuine loyalty, not twisted bonds forced under duress.

You know you’re not a good person but there are still some lines you refuse to cross. You have your own sort of honour, even if it’s not one everyone agrees with.

Be loyal to your people. Everyone else can burn. And if anyone does betray you…

You’ll make them  _pay_  with extreme prejudice.

You ignore the whispers at the back of your mind, accusing you of being the very sort of person you despise. It’s not betrayal if the world abandoned you first. You thought…you thought you had found people to rely on, but even they forgot you and left you to rot.

Never again. That’s why they have to pay. That’s why you hand picked your new family, made sure to be as loyal to them as they are to you.

A family of your own.

You’ve never had that before, and they know if any of them dare think about turning on their new brothers and sisters you’ll make sure they will regret it. You’re strict, not a cruel Father. Not like-

Not like at The Farm. They’re not your real parents anyway, you were created, not born. And now you’ve remade yourself in your own image. Haven’t you done an admirable job raising yourself? Learnt how to live. To be human.

That’s all you, not what they tried to shape you into. You are proud, proud of who you are and what you are and they will never, ever take that away from you. You refuse to be ashamed anymore. You refuse to bow down to their hatred, to believe yourself lesser for existing.

You are  _Pride_ , and you will not. Be. Erased!

Herald moans in pain, and you are momentarily distracted. “Having fun down there?” you hiss.

Herald just glares up at you, refusing to give you the satisfaction of answering your taunts. Honestly, you thought he’d be easier to break before you met him. It’s kind of ruining your groove.

“No answer? Hmph. No matter. I can still play with you regardless.”

Herald doesn’t whimper, but it’s a close thing. Honestly, he’s trying to put up such a tough front it’s almost pitiful. It almost makes you feel like a bit of a bully.

Almost.

“-won’t get away with this.”

Hm? Oh. It turns out the cat hadn’t caught his tongue after all. Well, you’re less a cat and more a lion, that’s what you styled your armour after, after all. You stand poised in gold and royal red and look just as much of a leader as you feel.

Herald spits in your face and  _oh_. That’s incredibly rude, not to mention horribly unhygienic.  Discreetly, you step back to grab a nearby handkerchief and pull your ruined glove off; maybe your priorities are skewed but getting bodily fluids on your armour is one of your pet peeves, blood is already bad enough. At least blood is something expected.

“Tsk, tsk. Didn’t your mother teach you spitting was rude?”

 _Anger. Coldness._  Oh, this was interesting. You hadn’t expected the surge of negativity that wells up at the mention of his family, it looked like the golden boy didn’t have as perfect of a home life as he would seem to have.

“It’s not like  _she’d_  care what I got up to,” Herald scowls. “But at least she wasn’t as psychotic as you! You’re deranged, you know!”

You’re pleased that the voice distorter turn your amused laughter into a rumbling growl appropriate as the lion you’ve modeled yourself after.

“Perhaps I am,” you tease. “It doesn’t change the fact that you’re kneeling here at my mercy. You might not want to challenge my goodwill so much, no?”

“I’ll- I’ll challenge it all I want!” he mutters, looking the picture of a poised, tragic hero even when so obviously outmatched.

It makes you bitter. That even when he’s at his lowest he still holds onto some notion of nobility and acting so much better than you. It makes you want to ruin him, drag him down into the dirt with you.

“Oh, is that so?” you say, vicious amusement and genuine anger coalescing into a something more raw and revealing than you would like.

Herald is holding up admirably in the face of the situation. He can’t take flight and run away from his problems like he’d like to, so all that terrified energy has turned into furious anger instead. “The others are going to come for me, you know,” he tells you, and he truly, honestly believes that. “They’re going to come and bring you to justice.”

You bristle. How  _dare_  he rub it in! How dare he rub it in that he has friends he can rely on while they left you for dead? It makes burn with resentment and that’s why you grab his hair in rage and jerk his head back forcibly, making him gasp in pain.

“Argh!” he yells. “W-what are you even  _doing_  this for? Do you just like hurting people? That’s  _pathetic._ ”

“I do,” you force out, face twisting in fury. He should be afraid. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. Why isn’t he begging for mercy yet? “And you, Herald, are beginning to test. My. Patience!”

He just looks at you with that infuriating, pitying face. “You call yourself Pride, but I don’t see anything in front of me to be proud of. I just see a broken, angry shell.” he tells you, and the truth stings, stings so badly because you can read Herald’s mind like a book and you know he genuinely believes that. Genuinely feels sorry for the twisted, cruel mess you’ve become.

No. No! You will not be pitied anymore! You are not a  _thing_  to be pitied anymore-

And then Herald has to go and rub salt in the wound. “People like you are worth nothing but feeling sorry for. You’ve gone down such a dark path. You know they say pride comes before a fall, right?-”

**Fall.**

_**Fall.** _

_Don’t- don’t fall._

_Please, help_

_Someone, please, anyone!_

_Ortega? Steel?_

_._

_.._

_…They’re not coming._

_No one is coming for you. You always knew that, but you hoped against hope you’d be proven wrong. There are no heroes for things like you, you were the one that tricked them into thinking you were human. The only person you can only rely on yourself._

(You can’t stop falling)

_Embrace it. Embrace the darkness. It’s where you belong._

_That’s why they have to suffer. They have to understand the pain they put you through…_

_Don’t they?_

_._

_You are not human you will never be one of them they abandoned you and they will pay for looking down on you for treating you as disposable_

_You will not be a thing anymore._

_Never again._

_…_

…You’re hyperventilating.

The armour is giving you warnings that you’ll pass out if your blood oxygen level rises much higher and your crew have entered the room and someone is slowly, gently, leading you away.

They don’t mention anything about what just happened to you and you’re glad for it. You shouldn’t have shown such weakness to them. You’re supposed to be the indomitable boss, you’re not supposed to be a mere, flawed person like the rest of them. You’re not supposed to start shaking and fall to your knees from the flashbacks.

It… grates at you that you’re too weak to protest the blanket they lay over you, the mug of chicken soup someone places beside you with a straw that’ll work through your mask.

The…the understanding and care you pick up from their thoughts. It undermines you, Pride is supposed to be in charge, controlling and caring for your family, not being cared for.

It  _scares_  you. You’re not supposed to be scared anymore. You’re supposed to be the one scaring people.

Herald doesn’t say a word as they lead away, but you feel his eyes on you following you out.


End file.
